High-Frequency Variability of Small-Particle Carbon Export Flux in the Northeast Atlantic.

ABSTRACT: The biological carbon pump exports carbon fixed by photosynthesis out of the surface ocean and transfers it to the deep, mostly in the form of sinking particles. Despite the importance of the pump in regulating the air-sea CO₂ balance, the magnitude of global carbon export remains unclear, as do its controlling mechanisms. A possible sinking flux of carbon to the mesopelagic zone may be via the mixed-layer pump: a seasonal net detrainment of particulate organic carbon (POC)-rich surface waters, caused by sequential deepening and shoaling of the mixed layer. In this study, we present a full year of daily small-particle POC concentrations derived from glider optical backscatter data, to study export variability at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) sustained observatory in the Nort

SUBMITTER: Bol R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6472636 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature